Valley VOTE Decries Rules on Release of Information

A day after releasing their vision for slicing off the San Fernando Valley from the city of Los Angeles, secession activists complained Wednesday that city officials are making it difficult to gather data needed for a state-mandated study of the proposed breakup.

The secession group Valley VOTE hammered the Los Angeles City Council for adopting an elaborate system Wednesday to screen each request for information needed to complete the study.

John M. Walker, a Valley VOTE board member, said it would take forever to get information. “We’re looking at a bureaucratic octopus,” he said.

The City Council’s plan calls for supervision by the mayor and council of all responses to requests for information. The city could route each request through as many as 14 steps before releasing information.

In some cases, agencies might not begin gathering records until receiving approval from the full council. Once the records are prepared, the council committee and the mayor would have to screen them first.

Ron Deaton, the council’s chief legislative analyst, said a system approved Wednesday is the most efficient way to handle the reams of documents sought by secessionists.

“Running around the city in a disorganized fashion getting data from different people doesn’t assure accuracy, consistency or timeliness,” he said. “You could talk to two different people and get two different kinds of data on the same project.”

Mayor Richard Riordan and several council members oppose secession. But under state law, the mayor and council must produce data needed for the secession study.

“It’s not going to benefit anybody to stonewall,” Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson said. “I think wise heads are going to understand that.”

Los Angeles County’s Local Agency Formation Commission is preparing the study of secession’s financial impact. If it concludes that a breakup is possible without harming residents of the Valley or the rest of Los Angeles, the secession proposal will be put before voters.

Secessionists fear stonewalling could make it impossible to finish the study in time to put their proposed divorce from Los Angeles before voters in 2002.

To quell those fears, the City Council on Wednesday approved a proposal by Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., a major supporter of harbor-area secession. It will require officials to get permission from the council’s ad hoc committee on secession if they need more than 90 days to respond to any data request.